“Figure Out What She Needs”: Multi-Level Marketing and the Exploitation of Insecurities

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 26: Collaboration, conflict, cohesion

Abstract

Multi-Level Marketing. companies are a type of direct sales organization that encourages independent contractors to sell a product and recruit new sellers to rise through the titular “levels” of the company for the opportunity to earn a larger income. While sellers are told they can work their way to the top, the majority of sellers make very little many if any at all. Turnover in these companies is high, yet these companies continue to source a revolving door of sellers that ultimately fund the company. I contend that sellers in these companies use economic and social insecurity to convince would-be sellers to join. This paper examines how MLMs companies contrive and exploit internal and external deficiencies in their workforce, which is largely women.

Author

• Nicole Christine Muffitt, University of Illinois-Chicago